Showing results by narrator "Deborah Balm" in All Categories

When a body is discovered in remote allotments on the edge of town, DI Fenella Sallow's quiet Saturday is shattered. Her first thoughts are that it was a terrible accident. But the bludgeoned corpse tells a different story....

Detective Inspector Fenella Sallow is obsessive about her work and driven by her own demons. When the body of a retired artist is discovered atop the blackened embers of the town bonfire, the community is rocked to the core. It falls to DI Fenella Sallow and her team to find out how she came to be there. In her 50s, the veteran detective inspector thought she had seen it all. But behind the curtained windows and closed doors of the idyllic Cumbria coastal setting lurks pure evil.

Fenella thought she'd seen it all—until a routine call at a local beauty spot uncovers a gruesome find that digs up dark memories from her past. With the public baying for blood, politicians up in arms and police superiors circling, Fenella faces the toughest case of her career. One in which she will have to battle psychological demons from her past and face down her fears about the future.

Everyone knows William Bredon, the earl of Pembroke, has a reputation as a captivating rogue, determined to never marry until his duty to produce an heir requires it. So when he invites Lady Hannah Rochester to dance, Hannah vows to keep her distance. Of course, Lady Hannah is not completely what she seems, either. A member of the dowager Lady Lancaster's Garden Society, she secretly spends her days solving mysteries and uncovering intrigues, and when she brings William into the fold, a sinister plot develops that brings the two closer together. 

Welcome to Ambleside. A quaint village of houses built from local stone in an ancient part of Cumbria. A place where everyone is welcome…until an elderly recluse artist is found dead in her remote stone cottage. Detective Inspector Fenella Sallow and her team are brought in to investigate. The manner of death is so abhorrent it is clear at once that murder is at play.

There are two sides to every story, the truth and the lies… Twenty years ago, two women from the village of Parton, vanished, sending shock waves through the tranquil seaside Cumbria community. Now, with the horrors of the past a distant memory, a body washes up on the beach and sends a haunting shock wave through the tight-lipped village. Long-buried secrets. A devastating past. A terrifying lie that must never be told. As Fenella and her team delve deeper into a twisted world of deceit and treachery, the investigation takes a sinister turn, and one thing becomes clear.

Warm beds, quaint mysteries, and the best rosemary bread this side of Pigsend Creek. Welcome to the Weary Dragon Inn. Bev may not know who she was before she showed up in the quaint village of Pigsend five years ago, but that doesn’t bother her much. She’s made a tidy little life for herself as the proprietor of the Weary Dragon Inn, where the most notable event is when she makes her famous rosemary bread.

Inspector Fenella Sallow is haunted by her past and obsessive about the truth…no matter how painful. When a body is found on an isolated footbridge in the scenic village of St. Bees, Fenella must piece together the events that lead to the grizzly death. All evidence points to a murder by the escaped serial killer dubbed "Mr. Shred". As the investigation heats up, Fenella and her team discover a world darker than most can imagine. And it soon becomes clear the killer is determined to teach the police a lesson.

London, 1727. When Miss Eden Lowther catches the eye of Lord Percival Falloure, Marquess of Tavistoke, she's delighted, for his wicked lordship is anything but boring. The canny coquette who declined five suitors the season prior sets out to capture the infamous "Terror of the Ton" for keeps, but the man she finds behind the façade isn't at all what she expects.

DI Fenella Sallow has retreated to her work, escaping the trauma of the last case, when a strange man is found dead in the ruins of an ancient castle. There are no clues, the police investigation stalled, and Fenella is reluctant to take on a case which will toss her into dark memories she'd rather forget. She soon finds herself in conflict with the locals and is stunned by the ripples of shock spreading outward from the ancient past to the killer's front door.

Detective Inspector Fenella Sallow is haunted by her past and cannot escape its painful truth… no matter how hard she tries. At a social designed to build team spirit, Fenella is called to a grim scene. A mummified woman throws her world into a spin, and the search for the truth tests Fenella to her limits. As the investigation begins, she peels away a web of intrigue, betrayal, lust and troubling secrets the victim took to the grave. In her toughest challenge yet, Fenella must face demons from her past and will pay a high price in the race to outwit a killer who leaves no clues.

Things are heating up in Pigsend, starting with mysterious magical events around the summer solstice and continuing through the annual Pigsend Harvest Festival. Get the final four books in the Weary Dragon Inn Series, including Zealots and Zeniths, Campaigns and Curses, Perils and Potions, and Royals and Ruses in a convenient bundle.

It was strictly business as Adrian Spence claimed the woman his brother desired. A hasty wedding, and Lilliana Dashell was his—sweet revenge on the father who disinherited him and the brother who let it happen. Their wedding night is a revelation as passionate, innocent Lilliana ignites fires Adrian tries desperately to deny. By day he is a stranger. By night he is the lover of her dreams, and she a shameless wanton in his arms. But Adrian is determined that no woman will ever possess him.

Missing girls. A plea for help she can’t ignore. An ancient enemy with plans of his own. Nine-year-old girls are missing from across the lands. Yvonne has promised to find them, and she always keeps her promises. Even when she doesn’t know where to start looking. There’s more trouble around. Mercenaries are disappearing. The ancient enemy has risen, more dangerous than anything she has encountered before. And an old ally wants her help.

This gripping anthology gathers classic American short fiction where deception is an art, truth is perilous, and crime often wears a human smile. From a real-life axe murder on a lonely New England island to calculated impostures, whispered rumors, political terror, and crimes born of obsession, these stories explore the dangerous motives that surface when masks begin to slip.

The arrival in Meryton of a young widow and her children leads to new friendships for Elizabeth and Jane Bennet in the spring of 1815, but they receive few answers to their questions about her previous life.

Former spy Irma Abercrombie wasn't looking for drama when she invited Violet Blackheart—a brainy, sun-deprived acquaintance—for a visit at her island home. But after an armed robbery in town goes terribly wrong, Irma gets pulled into an island intrigue: Was it a simple snatch and grab, or are there darker forces at work?

Haunted by sorrow and regret, Margaret Hale stands at the precipice of an uncertain destiny. Fiercely determined but not knowing how to find her way, she risks the little she has left on the heart she once shattered - hoping somehow to win back his respect, if not his love...Since he was a boy, John Thornton has fought the consequences of his father’s mistakes. Crushed on all sides, all he has left to offer the one who needs him most is a home, and a heart that aches for her.

The Apple: A Delicious History tells the engrossing and richly informative story of a fruit with a unique attachment to the human story. The 10,000-year tale of the round and pleasantly crunchy products of the trees of the genus Malus embraces not only culinary, horticultural, social and commercial history but also age-old traditions in mythology, folklore and religion.

Recently widowed Agnes Lockwood is spending a few days on Tyneside in Northeast England, catching up with her past. When expensive jewelry is stolen at the hotel, Chief Inspector Alan Johnson gets on the case. After Alan recognizes Agnes as a friend from schooldays, they rekindle their friendship and Agnes bombards him with questions about the case. But after dinner one evening, they find a body lying on the roadside. Fearing for her safety, Alan warns Agnes to stay away from the case. But being an inquisitive woman, Agnes cannot resist getting involved...too involved.